Operation Iron Swords - Day 156 - 10 March 2024
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This evening, several Arab and Islamic countries witnessed reconnaissance and investigation of the sighting of the Ramadan crescent, according to official statements issued on Friday and Saturday by several Arab countries, as announced by: the Saudi Supreme Court, the Crescent Sighting Committee of the Qatari Ministry of Endowments, the Egyptian Fatwa House, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Bahrain, Vision Investigation Committee in the Emirates. The Ramadan crescent sighting was also announced this evening by the Mufti of Jordan, Ahmed Al-Hasanat, the Ramadan Crescent Sighting Survey Committee in the Sultanate of Oman, and the Sharia Sighting Authority in Kuwait.
The Jerusalem Endowments Department and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs in the Holy City also announced that it has completed its preparations to receive worshipers during the month of Ramadan. Among the preparations announced by the director of the department, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, in a statement, are “the daily leading program for the evening and Tarawih prayers, the sermon, leading, and Holy Qur’an recitation program for Friday prayers, the Holy Qur’an recitation programs, and Sharia science lessons throughout the days of the month of Ramadan and Fridays in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Mosque has been subject to a strict Israeli siege and restrictions on the entry of worshipers into it, amid Israeli threats to restrict the number of worshipers there during Ramadan.
In Saudi Arabia, the head of religious affairs at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, announced the schedule for Tarawih and Tahajjud prayers in the two holy mosques, where famous sheikhs, including Al-Sudais, Maher Al-Muaiqly, Yasser Al-Dosari and Bandar Balila, lead the prayers. In Qatar, the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs confirmed the establishment of Tarawih prayers and prayers in the various mosques of the country, noting that there is a conclusion of the entire Holy Qur’an in the Tarawih prayers and prayers at the Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque in Doha.
The number of fasting hours is related to the length of the day, which in turn depends on latitude. The closer the country is to the North Pole, the longer its fasting hours are at this time of the year, and the further south it is from the equator, the shorter the days. This Ramadan, the city of Puerto Montt in Chile records the shortest day, as Muslims will fast for 12 hours and 44 minutes, while Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, will witness the longest fasting hours at 17 hours and 26 minutes. At the level of Islamic capitals, Kampala in Uganda records the shortest daylight hours at 13 hours and 17 minutes, while the number of fasting hours in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, is 15 hours and 33 minutes. As for the Arab capitals, Moroni in the Comoros records the shortest fasting hours at 13 hours and 4 minutes, while Rabat in Morocco records the longest day at 14 hours and 23 minutes.
According to Israeli media, the fears of the Israeli security authorities regarding the upcoming Ramadan season in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem are rising, amid warnings from the Israelis that Hamas may exploit the most important time for Muslims as an opportunity to ignite the scene. The biblical holidays for the Jews this year intersect with the second week of Ramadan, which may open the door to a new battle in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Ramadan is celebrated Mar 10, 2024 – Apr 9, 2024. Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jewish people from annihilation in the 5th century BCE. The story is told in the Book of Esther and is known as the Feast of Lots. Purim dates are March 23–24, 2024.
Prime Minister's Office Statement: "At a meeting of all security elements chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was decided: Israel strongly safeguards freedom of worship for all faiths, at all sites in Israel, especially the Temple Mount; Ramadan is sacred to Muslims; its sanctity will be upheld this year, as it is every year. During the first week of Ramadan, the entry of worshippers to the Temple Mount will be permitted, similar to the numbers in previous years. A weekly assessment of the security and safety aspects will be held; a decision will be made accordingly."
At the end of the discussion it was decided that there will be no age limit for entering the Temple Mount, but there will be quotas.
War Termination
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said that what the Foreign Intelligence Service ( Mossad ) is trying to promote regarding the lack of interest of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) regarding the prisoner exchange deal is not true. The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli security source as saying that the one who is stubborn about the issue of the prisoner exchange deal with Hamas is the Israeli side, in light of reports indicating disagreements between the political and professional levels of the government that caused the negotiations to falter.
The security source said that time is passing, and soon there will be no point in negotiating because there will be no prisoners remaining detained. The newspaper added, quoting the source, that if there is anyone who is stubborn in negotiating now, it is the Israeli side. The United States, Qatar, and Egypt are working to reach a truce agreement in Gaza before the month of Ramadan, but the negotiations held this week in Cairo did not lead to any tangible results.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said - in a statement - that "Mossad Chief David Barnea met with CIA Director William Burns on Friday as part of ongoing efforts to reach a new agreement to release the hostages." The statement added that Israel is still communicating with mediators with the aim of reaching an agreement. He said, "At this stage, Hamas is strengthening its positions," claiming that the movement does not seem interested in a deal and is seeking to ignite the region during the month of Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu rejected requests from the competent authorities in his government and security services to expand the scope of the mandate granted to the Israeli delegation entrusted with holding discussions in order to conclude a prisoner exchange deal with the Hamas movement. Israeli official radio reported that Netanyahu rejected this because of the opposition of political officials in his government to concluding a prisoner deal and achieving a truce for the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Channel 12 said that leaked reports regarding the course of recent discussions conducted by leading entities such as the War Council and the Mini-Ministerial Council revealed that differences in positions between political officials in the government and leaders in the security services are the reason for the faltering negotiations and the failure to achieve a prisoner exchange deal and a truce before a month arrives. Ramadan. On the other hand, Reuters quoted a source in the Hamas movement as saying that it was "unlikely" that a delegation from the movement would make another visit to Cairo early this week to hold talks. Hamas blamed Israel for the lack of progress, which refuses to provide guarantees to end the war or withdraw forces from the Gaza Strip.
The head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), Ismail Haniyeh, held the Israeli occupation responsible for not reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip , despite the movement’s great positivity and flexibility. Haniyeh stressed - in a speech in which he touched on the details of Hamas’ position on the ceasefire negotiations and developments in the Gaza Strip - that the occupation is evading the logical entitlement to the issue of prisoner exchange, and said that the occupation wants to remain in the axis of martyrs and cut the Gaza Strip in two halves.
Despite this, Haniyeh stressed Hamas's openness to reaching an agreement that achieves the movement's principles, and added, explaining, "If we receive a clear position to stop the aggression and return the displaced, we will show flexibility regarding the issue of prisoners." He stressed that Hamas showed positivity and responsibility in the course of the negotiations, and adhered to a comprehensive agreement in 3 stages linked to international guarantees.
What Haniyeh revealed about the movement’s position on the negotiations coincided with what was published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, stating that what the foreign intelligence service ( Mossad ) is trying to promote about Hamas’ lack of interest in the prisoner exchange deal is not true. The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli security source as saying that the one who is stubborn about the issue of the prisoner exchange deal with Hamas is the Israeli side, in light of reports indicating disagreements between the political and professional levels of the government that caused the negotiations to falter.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued a statement earlier in which he accused Hamas of "entrenching itself in its positions," claiming that the movement - apparently - is not interested in a deal, and seeks to ignite the region during the month of Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
Haniyeh also revealed that Hamas had set three controls from the beginning of the negotiating process in order to reach an agreement, which he said included a ceasefire and blocking all suspicious plans targeting Gaza. He stressed that the movement showed high responsibility, positivity, and wide flexibility in the negotiation process under the auspices of Qatar and Egypt, revealing that he had communicated with the mediators - even hours before delivering the speech - and had not received a commitment from the Israeli occupation to stop the war on Gaza.
Haniyeh added, "The enemy did not make any commitment to the return of the displaced to the areas from which they left," indicating that the occupation is content with talking about the gradual return of the displaced to their areas without clarifying what that means.
Haniyeh warned that the occupation did not recover any of its prisoners "and will not recover them without an agreement, despite all the massacres it is committing in Gaza," stressing that it failed in all its plans in Gaza, "and our people are stuck in their land despite the thousands of martyrs, wounded, and missing people." He pointed out that the Israeli aggression "will not succeed in achieving its goals in Gaza in light of the legendary steadfastness of the people of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people."
The head of the Political Bureau pointed out that Hamas has moved during the past months on the field front led by the resistance factions, and the second is the political front. Haniyeh revealed that Hamas is following up on the arrangements for the internal Palestinian situation, and stressed that "Hamas is more concerned than ever with the unity of our people and rebuilding its components." He continued, "We presented a political approach to ending the Zionist occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," adding, "We want to arrange matters through an agreement to form a government that agrees with specific tasks and for a temporary period until elections are held."
Haniyeh praised the steadfastness of the Gazans, and said, “Peace be upon Gaza, which paints the picture of freedom and honor for Palestine.” He also saluted all the resistance fronts that support the battle of the Palestinian people and support the resistance, threatening the Israeli occupier that he would be held accountable, no matter how long or short the time was.
He stressed that last October 7 was a historic turning point in the life of the Palestinian issue and a strategic shift in the conflict with the Israeli occupier, adding that this battle constituted a profound and important change at the regional and international levels. Last Thursday, Hamas said that its delegation left Cairo - Thursday - to consult with the movement’s leadership, while negotiations and efforts continued to stop the aggression, return the displaced, and bring relief aid to the Palestinian people. Reuters quoted Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri as saying that Israel "thwarted" all mediators' efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement, indicating that it rejects Hamas's demands to "stop the aggression, withdraw, and guarantee the freedom of aid entry and the return of the displaced."
The Gaza Families and Clans Association refused to be an alternative to any political system in the Gaza Strip . This came in the wake of attempts by the Israeli occupation authorities to create an entity that would be an alternative to the authority of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) in the Strip, which prompted the movement to say that the occupation’s attempts to create an entity Parallel will not work.
The Palestinian Tribes, Clans and Families Association said that the tribes are not an alternative to any Palestinian political system, but rather they are a component of the national components and support the resistance and the protection of the home front in the face of the Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Tribes, Clans and Families Association is a popular, non-governmental gathering that includes representatives of the majority of Palestinian tribes, clans and families in the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora.
In a statement issued today, Sunday, the Palestinian Tribes and Clans Association saw that national unity is the only way to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people and the homeland, the steadfastness of its people, and the valor of its resistance. He explained that the tribes are not an alternative to any Palestinian political system, but rather they are a component of the national components and support the resistance and the protection of the home front in the face of the Israeli occupation.
The statement came in the wake of talk about an Israeli intention to divide the Gaza Strip into regions, and for tribes and families to assume responsibility for those regions, especially the distribution of aid. In January 2024, the Israeli Kan channel revealed a plan by the Israeli occupation army that included dividing Gaza into areas governed by tribes, and assuming responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid there.
The channel said, “The Strip will be divided into regions and sub-districts, with each clan controlling a district, and will be responsible for distributing humanitarian aid,” noting that “these clans known to the army and the General Security Service ( Shin Bet ) will manage civil life in Gaza for a temporary period.” Without specifying the period).
The statement stressed the prohibition of dealing with the "Zionist enemy" in recycling the "village associations" system, or establishing tribal awakenings that serve the usurping occupier, and that everyone who participates in this is treated as the Zionist occupation. The statement stressed that the Palestinian tribes, clans and families are an integral part of the mosaic of Palestinian society, and are supportive of comprehensive resistance.
In the same context, a security official in the Hamas movement said that the occupation’s attempt to create bodies to administer Gaza is a failed conspiracy that will not be achieved, stressing that accepting communication with the occupation from mukhtars and tribes to work in the Gaza Strip is national treason, and that the movement will not allow it. The security official explained that Hamas would not allow "the enemy to compensate for what he lost on the field through political games inside the Gaza Strip."
He pointed out that the movement "will strike with an iron fist anyone who tampers with the internal front in the Gaza Strip, and we will not allow new rules to be imposed." The movement's security official continued, "All attempts to destabilize our security and stability in the Gaza Strip will fail and we will not allow that," stressing at the same time that resistance "is the only guarantee for us as a people and an incubating environment."
In the same context, the Director General of the Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Al-Thawabta, revealed that international parties have held - under Israeli guidance - 12 meetings to date with mukhtars and tribes in the Gaza Strip, as part of their efforts to search for the administration of the Gaza Strip after the war. Al-Thawabta indicated - in a post on the X platform - that all the families who were offered this matter declared their complete rejection of this offer, given their rejection of the occupation’s plans aimed at striking the Palestinian internal front.
It is noteworthy that the “Village Leagues” are administrative formations established by Israel in 1978, through which it attempted to create an alternative Palestinian leadership to the Palestine Liberation Organization , in order to be able to participate in self-rule negotiations and implement the Israeli civil administration plan, but Israel did not succeed in its plan at that time.
Since the Israeli wasa in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government announced that it will not allow the Palestinian Authority or the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) to administer the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, and Israeli officials also discussed plans to manage the Strip with Washington.
Operational Update
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Politico newspaper that "the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip may end within a month or two." Netanyahu stated: “We have destroyed three-quarters of Hamas’ combat brigades, and we are close to the end of the final part of the fighting.” He added: "This will not take more than two months... maybe six weeks, or maybe four." Netanyahu also explained that "there will be no ceasefire during the month of Ramadan unless Hamas releases the remaining Israeli hostages." Pointing out that "there has not yet been a clear breakthrough in the negotiations."
Analysts who spoke to the program "Gaza...what next?" Israel will continue its war on the Gaza Strip during the month of Ramadan, but they did not rule out that popular uprising would escalate in the West Bank , Jerusalem and the 1948 territories in solidarity with the Gazans who are being starved.
The month of Ramadan this year falls in light of the war of extermination, starvation and thirst to which the people of Gaza are exposed, and therefore the Palestinians will express their anger at what is happening to their brothers in the Gaza Strip, according to Dr. Hassan Khraisha, Vice President of the Palestinian Legislative Council, confirms.
Khreisha pointed out that people in the West Bank stopped all celebrations and iftars during Ramadan in solidarity with Gaza, and said that there is real resistance rising in the West Bank. He expected that the Palestinians will challenge the occupation and its security measures and will reach Al-Aqsa Mosque , especially during the holy month, noting that Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem have always been the center of Palestinian uprisings and uprisings against the occupation.
However, the senior researcher at Al Jazeera Center for Studies, Dr. Liqaa Makki, believes that investing in the month of Ramadan requires what he called “a vanguard force that moves public opinion,” and not just a popular outburst from the people that may end quickly if it is subjected to repression. Makki does not believe that Israel will try to use the month of Ramadan in a way that serves the course of the war it is waging on the Gaza Strip. “If it wants escalation in the West Bank, it will take certain measures to provoke the Palestinians in Jerusalem, and if it wants calm so that it can devote itself to Gaza, it will facilitate the procedures, and perhaps facilitate them in a day and complicate them.” In the end, to serve their interests.”
The month of Ramadan this year, in the view of the writer and researcher in international affairs, Hossam Shaker, has its significance and specificity in light of the "war of genocide and starvation" to which the people of Gaza are subjected, and it is a season of weakness for the Israeli occupation, “because the power of force is unable to resolve the situation in the face of the mass of popular masses that are gathered together.” We cannot deal with him according to the logic of mass massacres, specifically in Jerusalem.”
Ramadan this year may be the season of settling overdue scores with the occupation in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and inside Palestine, and the Arab and Islamic peoples will not be immune from that if they pick up the message and act according to what is dictated by the appropriate solidarity position with Gaza, according to the writer and researcher in international affairs.
Shaker believes that the occupation will be in trouble if it allows the Palestinian masses to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque, and if it does not allow it, it will have played with fire and escalated the situation in a way that could lead to an explosion of the situation in Jerusalem and perhaps in the West Bank, the territories of 1948, and in the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Regarding the course of the war during the month of Ramadan, the senior researcher at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies suggested that there would be no truce during the holy month, and that the attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would be postponed until after Ramadan. He pointed out that the Americans may have a desire for calm, but not out of respect for the holy month. But for certain timings imposed by the strategy for the Gaza war.
Operational Update - Gaza
Israel is constructing a new road and security zone all along the broder wtih the Gaza Strip. According to a CNN report based on an analysis of satellite imagery, the IDF is building a road that splits the Gaza Strip in two from east to west as part of the military's plan to maintain control of the area for many months.
US Central Command said "U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Northern Gaza on March 10, 2024, at 2:07 p.m. (Gaza time) to provide essential relief to civilians in Gaza affected by the ongoing conflict. The combined, joint operation included Jordanian provided meals and a U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft. A U.S. C-130 dropped over 11,500 meal equivalents, as well as other food including rice, flour, pasta, and canned food, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance in Northern Gaza. The DoD humanitarian airdrops contribute to ongoing U.S. and partner-nation government efforts to alleviate human suffering. These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries."
Scenes broadcast by Al Jazeera showed a drone belonging to the Al- Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - throwing two anti-personnel shells at the headquarters of the Israeli army command east of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip. The scenes obtained by Al Jazeera included the first shell being dropped on tents in the area where the command headquarters is located, and after its explosion, the clip, which was recorded with night thermal photography, showed a number of soldiers fleeing in different directions. While the second shell was thrown at what the Al-Qassam Brigades called “military pajamas” for the occupation soldiers, where one of the soldiers also appeared running away after the shell fell and exploded. According to the clip released by Al-Qassam military media, this operation took place last Wednesday, the sixth of March.
The military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, considered the targeting by a helicopter of the Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - of an Israeli command headquarters east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip as evidence of the presence of resistance activity in the region, which refutes the occupation’s allegations.
The military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, believed that the targeting of the Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - by an Israeli helicopter east of Beit Hanoun (northern Gaza Strip ) is evidence of the presence of resistance activity in the region, which refutes the occupation’s allegations. During his analysis for Al Jazeera, Al-Duwairi said that the Qassam operation targeted an area that had been previously combed and contains an advanced command headquarters for the occupation army. It is considered a soft area and close to the Gaza envelope area.
He explained that the Qassam helicopter is similar to the Israeli "Quad Capture" drone, and is designed to drop bombs against heavy targets (tanks) or individuals, so that they can be directed and launched from anywhere. He pointed out that the helicopter is a small reconnaissance and attack drone, consisting of 6 propellers, and is launched over the targeting area, and operates in free drop, and was used in this operation at night.
The strategic expert confirmed that it is not known if the operation was an isolated case or otherwise, nor is it known how many helicopters are being used, but he indicated that the occupation will review how to deal with them if such operations are repeated over close periods of time. Al-Duwairi indicated that the occupation may deal with Qassam helicopters through cyber solutions to confront them by detecting and neutralizing them, pointing out that these drones were used extensively in the “ Al-Aqsa Flood ” attack, and were considered part of the occupation’s bank of surprises, along with parachute landings.
He concluded that this operation confirms the continuation of resistance in the northern sector, and refutes the occupation’s claims since the start of the third phase of the war in that region, as 3 major operations have taken place since that announcement. Al-Duwairi refers in this to the occupation army’s operation east of Gaza, which targeted the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighborhoods and areas close to them (12 days), and the entry into the neighborhoods of Sheikh Ajlin, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Nasr, and the University Square southwest of Gaza (13 days), leading to the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood operation east of Gaza (5 days).
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that Israel has evacuated more than a million Palestinians from north to south, and will move them west before the Rafah operation. He added, according to what was reported by the public radio of the State Broadcasting Corporation, "Now we have to move them west, and to other areas before the Rafah operation." Regional and international warnings have recently escalated regarding the Israeli bombing of Rafah, with preparations for a ground invasion, and the danger this poses to hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have taken refuge there as their last refuge in the far south of the Strip.
“In the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, we found the forest but we did not find the trees, but when we entered the Gaza Strip we did not find the forest or the trees,” this is how an Israeli military commentator describes the battle in the Gaza Strip with the resistance, led by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement.
This description came to express the amount of confusion experienced by the occupation army, which has been waging a relentless war on everything in Gaza for more than 156 days, and after its confidence in its capabilities was shaken as a result of the first strike it suffered on October 7 last, and then for not achieving it. The war goals he announced, the most important of which is the elimination of the resistance, which continues to direct successive strikes at the occupation forces.
If the Al-Aqsa Flood operation announced by Al-Qassam Commander Muhammad Al-Deif represented “the Israeli army’s greatest strategic deception” and “the greatest Israeli intelligence failure,” then the resistance’s steadfastness and continuation of directing strikes at the occupation forces even after more than 156 days have passed since the war is considered a failure. Another occupation. One of the most important secrets of the resistance’s steadfastness in the Gaza Strip lies in what is known militarily as the “passive defense” tactic, that combat method that relies on the use of a set of preventive measures to neutralize the resistance’s military installations from enemy targets and reduce damage.
Through a set of military measures, the resistance can still direct painful and harsh strikes against the occupation at the level of individuals, machinery and equipment, despite the devastating bombing operations, the continuous siege, the limited space for movement, and the limited capabilities. The idea of passive defense is based on misleading the enemy's intelligence and combat weapons, which makes them lose their value and effectiveness. One of the resistance cadres - speaking to Al Jazeera Net - cites on this the video recordings that the brigades broadcast of fighters as they approach the enemy crowds and strike them from a distance, and even go beyond that to attach explosive devices to the vehicles. The Israeli forces then return to their positions without being detected.
The occupation's security and intelligence services remain dispersed regarding every Qassam operation, doubting their capabilities and asking repeated questions: Where did the fighter come from? How did it run out so quickly? How did he leave without revealing his situation? This does not necessarily mean that the occupation army was unable to inflict losses on the resistance in terms of personnel and equipment, as this is the nature of war. However, the continuation of resistance operations despite the size of the brute military force used by the occupation in Gaza indicates the effectiveness of this tactic and its success in sparing the resistance major losses.
The military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, told Al-Jazeera that a joint operations room made up of 5 Western countries supports Israel in its war against the Gaza Strip, and pointed out that its mission is to close “the loophole of Israeli intelligence failure.” He pointed out that there is no integrated and mature intelligence system, and when several different intelligence groups and agencies work, “the strengths are unified and combined to close the points of weakness and failure.”
The resistance was able to deliver certain strikes that astonished observers and the occupation, which was unable to cover them up or hide their strength and the magnitude of the losses resulting from them. In return, the resistance broadcast recordings that clearly showed these operations. With the beginning of the ground war, the resistance targeted a "Tiger" armored vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip, killing its crew, consisting of 11 officers and soldiers, while the occupation announced that the ammunition explosion led to the death of all its members.
In a controlled operation in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza, last December, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the killing of about 10 occupation soldiers in targeting occupation fortifications inside citizens’ homes. In January, Al-Qassam Brigades fighters succeeded in luring an Israeli force into a tunnel in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza, despite the occupation using a quadcopter, police dogs, and a surveillance camera before entering the tunnel.
Days later, the occupation announced the killing of 21 officers and soldiers as a result of the explosion of a shell fired by the resistance, which struck explosive materials in which the Israeli soldiers were preparing to booby-trap a residential square, leading to an explosion and the collapse of buildings on top of them, then detonating a minefield with rescue forces.
Analysts believe that the resistance's knowledge of the land of Gaza, in addition to its adoption of the passive defense model and its adoption of the "guerrilla war" method, is what enabled it to inflict heavy losses on the occupation despite the great imbalance of power between the two parties. The resistance's adoption of these mechanisms aims to exploit the enemy's weaknesses.
This tactic revolves around what the resistance cadre called “the resistance’s survival strategy,” in which the enemy’s intelligence, combat, and cyber capabilities are neutralized, so that nothing is known to the enemy, neither military targets, nor personnel, nor equipment. The resistance also seeks, through this military art, to reduce the “radar footprint” of its various material and human capabilities, and to make espionage and surveillance operations carried out by the enemy difficult, and to prevent it from tracking it and determining its location and method of movement.
This is supported by a set of security measures and precautions, starting with “radio silence,” avoiding falling within enemy weapon ranges, adopting camouflage before and during war, in addition to using natural and artificial obstacles. Through passive defense, the resistance adopts plans based on absorbing occupation strikes, violent bombing, belts of fire, and a scorched earth policy. The tunnels remain one of the most important pillars of the resistance's defensive plan. Through these tunnels, all enemy devices, satellites, thermal cameras, and reconnaissance aircraft were neutralized.
The IDF announced the killing and wounding of hundreds of its members by friendly fire. According to military analysts, the majority of these cases were the result of a process of confusion resulting from a breakdown in communication with the command, which controls everything on the battlefield and does not leave the soldier room to make decisions and implement them. Tasks individually. On the other hand, the Israeli war command faced dilemmas in search and rescue operations, liberating prisoners, and evacuating the dead and wounded and their equipment, as a result of losing contact with soldiers in the field.
As for the resistance, it adopts advance plans for confrontation based on decentralization of defense and distribution of force, leaving it to the resistance in its military complex to assess the situation and take appropriate action according to each combat situation. Through these plans, the defense remains effective even if the fighters are cut off from their command, and any deficit or deficiency in any gap can be repaired through the reserve forces available in the region.
Many supporters of the resistance ask questions about the nature of the conduct of battles and the resistance’s tactics in war, by commenting on the scenes broadcast by the resistance, and a report published by Al Jazeera Net about the military nodes answered some of these questions. Here, a question may arise about the secret of the resistance not targeting the crowds in which the occupation soldiers appear in the Gaza Strip and its borders through video clips broadcast by the enemy media and the military spokesman team of the Israeli army.
A source in the resistance who requested anonymity he replied that these crowds “may be outside the Gaza Strip, but the occupation portrays them as being there as a matter of psychological warfare. The location may not be known to the resistance, or outside the range of its weapons.” He added, "It may be that the combat node in this place is not designated for this type of target, or that its ammunition has run out and is awaiting re-ammunition. Or that this site was actually struck and the resistance was unable to photograph it, and that the picture was recorded by the occupation in advance." He concluded by saying, "The final matter is that the landing of enemy forces on foot on the ground will only occur after the area has been cleared through bombing or fire belts, or after ensuring that the resistance elements have withdrawn."
Weeks have passed since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government announced their intention to invade the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which faced an American demand to guarantee the safety of civilians before launching the attack. With the intensification of international criticism of the focused targeting of civilians by the occupation forces, the occupation government confirmed that it intends to develop a plan to deport the city’s 1.4 million residents and refugees, without specifying where exactly.
Today, with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, the Israeli government finds itself facing a difficult decision to continue a process that it believes is necessary to achieve the complete victory that Netanyahu spoke about. This supposed battle comes in light of deep doubts and disagreements in Israel based on the feasibility of continuing the military campaign, as long as it does not achieve its desired goals, which are eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and liberating its Israeli prisoners.
There is much criticism from political and military levels and from former prime ministers for the continuation of the operation because it did not achieve its goal, in addition to calls to move to prisoner negotiations with Hamas, with the aggression continuing after that. This is what the members of the War Council, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, believe in, and what two former prime ministers, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, and other former military personnel, called for. These calls are also based on the clear and frank accusation of Netanyahu that he wants to prolong the war in order to preserve his government, spare himself from trial on charges of corruption, and fail to anticipate the October 7 attack.
On the other hand, Netanyahu seeks to carry out the attack on Rafah because he wants to give the occupation army the opportunity to achieve an image of victory by tightening the noose on the Hamas movement and its political and military leadership. He believes that success in killing any of the movement's symbols will improve his popularity and give him an image of victory, thus prolonging the life of his government. Rather, he is trying, through continued military pressure, to push Hamas leaders, led by Yahya Sinwar, to surrender or accept deportation outside the occupied territory, as happened with Yasser Arafat. In Lebanon in 1982, an offer that the Hamas leadership did not accept.
The continuation of the war is a lifeline for Netanyahu, regardless of its results, which increases his differences with his opponents, who, in light of the war, find it difficult to call for elections that would oust Netanyahu. Netanyahu and his Minister of War are giving justifications for invading Rafah and occupying the Salah al-Din Crossing (Philadelphia), with the desire to besiege Hamas in its last strongholds, and to prevent supplies and weapons from reaching it through smuggling tunnels along the line.
But what is true is that most of these tunnels were flooded by Egypt and are no longer working, in addition to the Egyptian walls and fortifications that prevent smuggling. In addition, the resistance is now manufacturing its own weapons.
The Netanyahu government also considers that this battle aims to complete control over the Gaza Strip, with the completion of the construction of a one-kilometre-wide buffer zone along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, which ensures that it limits the resistance’s ability to target Israel and enables settlers to return to the Gaza Strip. However, the security of the settlers cannot be guaranteed as long as the resistance remains active, and the war did not succeed in curbing or weakening it significantly, as it is enough to fire a single missile salvo for the settlers’ security to dissipate. Israeli sources have confirmed that the occupation is preparing, within the framework of the post-war vision, to enable Palestinian tribes that do not belong to either Hamas or Fatah to rule Gaza civilly, which is what many Palestinian tribes have rejected, which makes it difficult to implement.
This government refuses to deal with the American proposal to enable the reformed Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza, because it wants to prevent the existence of any Palestinian entity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the other hand, it has been proven that the occupation army only succeeded in neutralizing a few thousand resistance members out of about 35,000 fighters, and only dismantled small parts of the resistance tunnels. This is what the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the US Senate, Mark Warner, said about two weeks ago. .
This makes the occupation army's mission much more difficult to dismantle the resistance's capabilities in an area where there are still 4 Hamas military battalions that have not yet participated in the battle, and whose tunnels have not been significantly damaged.
It is clear that the occupation government is still waiting for the results of the truce negotiations before it begins its ground attack on Rafah. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant has previously threatened that his forces will attack Rafah if the truce negotiations fail. Security circles in Israel, as well as the United States, have warned against any escalation during Ramadan in the West Bank and Gaza, in anticipation of the expansion of the conflict.
The negotiations are still stuck on basic points, the most important of which is the pledge of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza at the end of the third phase in the framework agreement reached in Paris, the repositioning of the occupation forces in the buffer strip they occupy, and allowing civilians displaced from the south to return to their homes in the north. While the equation of releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for civilian prisoners of the occupation in the first stage is still a point of contention between the two parties.
What is noteworthy is that Netanyahu is still seeking to thwart the truce talks. At times, he restricts the powers of the negotiators, at other times he does not consult with the War Council regarding the instructions he gives them, and at third times he requests, through mediators, the resistance to give him the names of the prisoners without his War Council taking a decision to do so, which is what it responded to. Hamas, that this will not be without a price.
Israeli writer Raviv Drucker, a journalist for Haaretz, confirms this matter when he says that Netanyahu realizes that the army and all the ministers in the war council agree on the need for the deal, “but this deal will fail Netanyahu’s most important mission, which is the survival of the coalition whose members include Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.”
The US administration is also seeking to achieve a truce and is putting pressure on the Netanyahu government, in order to save Biden’s deteriorating standing in the elections, especially among young people and Arabs. Gantz's visit to Washington and his meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, the US President's envoy to the Middle East, Brett McGurk, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, came as a message to Netanyahu that this administration is capable of dealing with his opponents and supporting them.
However, Netanyahu is still resisting American pressure and is even betting on Biden's fall in the elections and the arrival of Donald Trump to provide him with full coverage to continue in the government. Instead of the American position, Netanyahu is on the verge of losing his Western allies due to the intense targeting of civilians, obstructing the entry of aid.
Although talk about the Rafah attack has largely declined recently in favor of talking about the details of the truce, its continued faltering may open the door for Israel to use the attack as a pressure on Hamas to accept the Israeli position, especially since President Biden tried to throw the ball in Hamas’ court in reaching the truce agreement.
Despite this, Netanyahu's government faces a major dilemma related to the fate of 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah, and how to fulfill American and Western demands to spare them from war and prevent large massacres among their ranks if war breaks out without securing them. The Israeli government did not disclose a specific solution, although the Washington Post quoted an Israeli official that there is an evacuation plan that includes establishing 15 camps on the seashore, each with 25,000 tents, to accommodate refugees in Rafah before the attack on it begins.
The Israeli dilemma is related to the position of the Palestinians and the extent of their response to a new displacement plan, in light of their already suffering from displacement from the north to Rafah. This plan also requires large financial funding, which is not believed to be approved by any country as long as the Netanyahu government does not cooperate with the American administration, neither on the issue of the truce nor on the issue. On the topic of post-war and independent statehood.
Rather, the extremist government may carry out massacres and bombings on the border that will push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to head to the Egyptian Rafah, creating a reality that Egypt will deal with - despite its rejection of the issue of displacement - by sheltering them in Al-Arish, an area that can house tens of thousands in the empty residential apartments therein, and which can Expand it to accommodate hundreds of thousands.
From reading the Israeli position, and the limits of American pressure on it, it is likely that the Netanyahu government will go for the invasion option, provided that it succeeds in sheltering the Rafah refugees to avoid major massacres. Otherwise, this process may cause important changes in international positions on aggression, and provoke the American position by resorting to restrictions on the supply of weapons, or perhaps even lifting the lid on it at the United Nations.
The occupation has begun concentrated bombing on some targets in Rafah, and wants to continue the aggression to occupy all of Gaza, and impose its political vision by empowering Palestinians who are not affiliated with Hamas or even Fatah to rule Gaza, and transform its situation into something similar to that of the West Bank.
This is what expresses Netanyahu’s slogan of complete victory, even if its result is uncertain, and almost impossible, because the occupation army did not gain control over the north and Khan Yunis, and there is great doubt that he will be able to do that in Rafah due to the resistance’s steadfastness and its retention of an important part of its strength.
As for the issue of timing, it is largely related to the achievement achieved in the armistice deal, whether these talks extend to the month of Ramadan, and the time that the occupation will take to transfer the Palestinian refugees out of Rafah. As for the desired results for Israel, it does not seem that this battle will differ from its predecessors in terms of failure to achieve its goals. Rather, it may be the beginning of the end of the battle after the occupation fails to achieve its goals.
There are two factors that could stop the attack, and certainly not American pressure. The first is the fall of the Netanyahu government, and the second is the success of the resistance in achieving a breakthrough and inflicting field defeats on the occupation in the north or Khan Yunis, which would make it shift its attention to these two regions.
Amid dwindling hopes for reaching a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) and releasing detainees before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, US President Joe Biden ordered his army to build a temporary floating dock and bridge on the coast of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea to open a new route to deliver humanitarian aid.
Biden's official decision came in his important State of the Union address last Thursday, prompted by the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with hundreds of thousands of innocent people approaching the brink of starvation. His decision raised questions and surprise, as Biden remains committed to providing all the weapons and ammunition Israel needs to enable it to continue its aggression, in addition to his refusal to call for a complete ceasefire.
During recent weeks, the Biden administration resorted to providing a small amount of food aid through air drops after Israel refused to bring it in through 6 land crossings linking the Gaza Strip to the outside world, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and the rest with Israel. Commentators who Al Jazeera Net spoke to considered that what Biden is doing is nothing but a new attempt at evasion in his quest to find balance in an unbalanced war in the Middle East. Biden also reiterates that he is "the first Zionist president of the United States" with his full and unconditional support for Israel. In addition, these are internal political electoral calculations that Biden fears will cost him the opportunity to remain in the White House for another 4 years.
There is ample evidence that Biden has become increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's defiance of his pleas to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, but he remains opposed to halting the supply of munitions to Israel or exploiting its complete dependence on the United States to influence the course of the fighting.
Aaron David Miller, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former American negotiator in the Middle East peace negotiations, said in a tweet on the X platform, “The Israeli government is unwilling and unable to facilitate the arrival of more humanitarian aid to Gaza as a result of internal political calculations, and they do not.” They care about the suffering of Palestinian civilians or about the future of Gaza.”
As for Democratic Representative from California, Ro Khanna, he said in an interview the day after Biden delivered his speech that “you cannot have a policy of providing aid and giving Israel weapons to bomb food trucks at the same time.” He added, "There is an inherent contradiction in that, and I think the administration needs to reconcile the real compassion and moral concern shown last night for the lives of Palestinian civilians with real accountability for Netanyahu and the far-right government there."
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder had said that there would be no American forces on the ground in Gaza, but the American army would help build a dock and bridge to transport aid. He explained that construction of the corridor will take about 60 days, but once in place, it is expected to be able to provide approximately two million meals per day.
Khaled Al-Jundi, director of the Palestine Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, tweeted, “Within 60 days, thousands more will die from hunger and disease. The most logical and effective response would be to demand that Israel, which relies entirely on American weapons and support, stop blocking the entry of aid and open the crossings.” The Six Lands to Gaza immediately.”
For her part, international affairs expert Asal Rad indicated that the introduction of any aid into Gaza is welcome, due to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in which children are starving to death. However, the Biden administration has failed to acknowledge Israel's responsibility for the current crisis and the fact that it is using starvation as a weapon of war as Human Rights Watch and other experts have noted.
She told Al Jazeera Net that it is also strange that the United States resorts to such dangerous methods of providing aid, which is usually reserved as a last resort when dealing with hostile countries, and not with allied countries such as Israel, and it is another reflection of its ability to escape punishment and not take any action. The Biden administration has taken no steps to hold it accountable for its actions.
Commentators ruled out that Washington would propose a step to build a temporary water dock without prior coordination with Israel. In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Wolfgang Postztai, a former diplomat and international affairs expert, indicated that it would be very surprising if Biden had not informed Netanyahu before he made this statement in his State of the Union address. He indicated his belief that the Israelis would not dare to spoil Biden's plans, but they would insist on some kind of security checks to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas.
In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, Ambassador David Mack, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, who previously worked at his country’s consulate in Jerusalem , pointed out the importance of Biden’s announcement, and considered that the sea pier is a more effective means of providing humanitarian aid compared to air drops that do not It helps only a small percentage of Gaza's population. He stressed that the Israelis will give up relatively little control, as they fend off American and international criticism for their harsh stance towards the residents of Gaza, who are in dire need of aid.
For her part, Rad criticized the Biden administration's approval of Israel's security checks and inspections, which reflects her fears that the United States will provide questionable aid. This will slow down the delivery of aid, “which Israel has been doing for months with all aid arriving in Gaza.”
Various opinion polls indicate that a two-thirds majority of Americans want the fighting to stop immediately in Gaza, and the percentage rises to more than 80% among Democrats. Postztay considered that the current opinion polls on the US presidential elections are not very favorable for Biden, who particularly needs more support among American youth, many of whom are strongly critical of his policy towards Israel, and this move is one step to winning them back. Rad said that despite the internal pressure on President Biden to act, these announcements and actions are merely a public relations operation given that the administration continues to provide money and weapons to Israel without stopping.
The Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip announced that it targeted Israeli forces with military operations in Khan Yunis and the Zaytoun neighborhood, while the Israeli army announced the killing of an officer and attacking resistance infrastructure in Jabalia and Beit Hanoun. The Al -Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), said that a number of its members blew up a house that was previously booby-trapped by an Israeli foot force, killing and wounding its members in the Bani Suhaila area, east of the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Al-Qassam added that its members clashed with another force inside a tunnel in Bani Suhaila and wounded a number of the force’s soldiers, in addition to killing a soldier from the Engineering Corps with a gunshot to the head.
For its part, the Al- Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement - broadcast scenes of mortar shells that struck Israeli army positions in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the largest neighborhood in Gaza City.
As the intense battles continued in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army announced the killing of a major in the Special Forces during the battles in the Gaza Strip. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the Israeli soldiers “made sacrifices,” stressing that it was impossible for the army to continue its operations without those “sacrifices.”
The Israeli army said that Nahal Brigade soldiers are continuing their combat operations in the central Gaza Strip. They were able to eliminate 13 Palestinian militants using drones, fighter jets, and tank fire. In its statement, the army confirmed that the soldiers of the Commando Brigade continued their face-to-face fighting with Palestinian resistance fighters in the Hamad neighborhood. The army also announced that two Hamas fighters had surrendered themselves to its forces, according to the statement.
In Khan Yunis, the army said that its soldiers killed 17 Palestinian militants in the past 24 hours. Warplanes also attacked infrastructure in the Jabalia and Beit Hanoun areas in the northern Gaza Strip. The statement indicated that soldiers from the "Agoz" unit killed the Palestinian who killed reserve major Amisher Ben David, in battles in the southern Gaza Strip last Friday, and he is a relative of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich .
Operational Update - Judea-Samaria
Settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque while the Israeli occupation forces intensified their deployment around it ahead of the month of Ramadan, at a time when the Israeli escalation in the West Bank continues through raids and arrests. Palestinian sources said that dozens of settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem under the protection of Israeli police.
The latest incursions into Al-Aqsa come one day before the month of Ramadan, which begins tomorrow, Monday, in several Arab and Islamic countries, while the occupation authorities prevent many Palestinians from reaching the blessed mosque to pray in it, and keep others away from it under various pretexts. Israeli Channel 12 reported that there was a large deployment of security forces in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque for fear of violent disturbances with the advent of the month of Ramadan, in light of the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
Settlers today began establishing a new settlement outpost south of Ein Al-Sakout in the northern Jordan Valley, northeast of the occupied West Bank. The official Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) said that the spot is of a touristic nature, noting that Ain al-Sakout is one of the beautiful and picturesque natural areas in the northern Jordan Valley, and is rich in agricultural life, as it is characterized by the fertility of the land and the spread of water pumps.
Wafa added that the village has open plain areas along the Jordan River, and is one of the most fertile agricultural lands in the West Bank, surrounded by several agricultural settlements. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the establishment of the settlement outpost and considered it an Israeli attempt to control more Palestinian land to expand settlements, and said that this undermines the chances of realizing the Palestinian state and the two-state solution.
Palestinian sources said that the occupation forces fired heavy live bullets during their storming of the town of Hizma, northeast of the occupied Holy City. Israeli forces also stormed the city of Birzeit near Ramallah, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said that a citizen was injured by live bullets during the storming and was taken to the hospital. The occupation forces also stormed the town of Surda, north of Ramallah, according to Palestinian sources.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli army stormed several cities and towns in the West Bank as part of an ongoing escalation since the seventh of last October, resulting in the martyrdom of hundreds and the arrest of thousands. Israeli forces arrested a number of citizens, including a girl, during their storming of the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh at dawn today. The Tulkarm Battalion, affiliated with the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, documented the moment a homemade explosive device was detonated in an Israeli military bulldozer during the occupation forces’ storming of the Nour Shams camp, east of the city of Tulkarm.
A statement from the brigades stated that the device, called the “Shaqaqi device,” was highly explosive, and that the operation led to the bulldozer being damaged and completely out of service. The Palestinian faction also confirmed that an Israeli “Tiger” military vehicle was targeted with explosive devices.
Hebrew Channel 12 said that Jerusalem and the West Bank were witnessing heavy alert on the eve of the first Ramadan, with an unprecedented deployment of Israeli police. The channel reported that the deployment of the Israeli police in Jerusalem is much greater than in previous years during Ramadan, and the reason is that Ramadan this year coincides with the war on the Gaza Strip.
As for the West Bank, the Hebrew Channel reported that the number of Israeli forces is double the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the alert units supporting the Israeli forces in the West Bank. It pointed out that there are now 23 battalions of the Israeli army in the West Bank, while there are 12 battalions in the entire Gaza Strip. It explained that the intensification of Israeli army forces and Shin Bet activity comes in the wake of large numbers of warnings of the possibility of operations.
The Israeli military claimed that Hamas' strategy was leading to steps that were not typical of the previous Ramadan, indicating that they hoped for an escalation in the city of Jerusalem, including that the events would spread to other arenas. In addition, in recent days, the Israeli police arrested 20 Jerusalemites on charges of incitement and sharing video tapes from October 7th.
Moreover, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he warned of the security risks due to the unrestricted entry of Israeli Arabs into Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan. Ben Gvir called for the political and security ministerial council to be held to discuss the expected crowding on the Temple Mount during the month of Ramadan, in light of Netanyahu’s decision not to specify the number of worshipers, warning that “no disaster occurred during the months of Ramadan in the past, but as in the Mount Meron disaster, this "There's no guarantee it won't happen this time." Ben Gvir wrote in his letter, the text of which he published on his page on the “X” platform: “I would like to warn you that even after the great efforts made by the police, there are major gaps in the ability to implement the Prime Minister’s decision without endangering human life.”
Operational Update - Lebanon
Operational Update - Syria / Iraq
Operational Update - Yemen
The Russian newspaper Izvestia confirmed that the Americans and British lack intelligence information in their campaign against the Ansar Allah Houthi group in the Red Sea , and stated that American military experts did not originally have knowledge of all the capabilities of the Houthis. Writer Ksenia Loginova said that the same American sources announced to international media that the United States’ efforts to stop attacks from Yemen on navigation in the Red Sea are hampered by the lack of intelligence information about the Houthis’ arsenal and their full military capabilities.
Loginova added that the Pentagon does not know the extent of the damage it inflicted on the Houthis through those strikes it carried out in Yemen, as it did not previously have detailed information about the size of the Houthi arsenal. She added that it is possible that the Houthis are hiding their weapons very carefully using hideouts and tunnels built in the mountains. This is in addition to the group’s keenness to take all measures to protect internal information from any leakage.
The report quoted Ted Singer, a former senior official at the US Central Intelligence Agency , as saying that obtaining information regarding Yemen has become a difficult task since Washington evacuated its embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2015, following the Houthis’ control of the capital. The report added that the Americans say they have destroyed or damaged 150 targets since January 12. These targets include anti-ship missiles, anti-aircraft systems, communications and aerial reconnaissance systems, drones, weapons depots and command centers.
But it is clear that this was not decisive, as the Houthis continue to attack targets in the Red Sea, including US Navy ships and commercial ships flying the American flag. The Russian newspaper quoted Elena Panina - Director of the Rosstrat Institute for International Political and Economic Strategies - as confirming that the strikes launched by the Houthis have recently begun to turn into systematic strikes, and are hitting most targets. Panina pointed out that this represents a major loss financially for the Americans and the British, as well as for their reputations.
The British newspaper "Financial Times" reported that maritime experts suspect that a mysterious naval ship sailing between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is working to provide the Houthis with data that will help them determine the targets of their attacks on ships. The newspaper explained in its report that the Iranian ship "Behshad", which is currently facing intense scrutiny by maritime experts, moved to the Gulf of Aden after years in the Red Sea, just at a time when attacks on ships in the vital waterway off Yemen escalated.
It added that "Behshad", which superficially looks like an ordinary dry materials tanker, moved to the Gulf of Aden last January, and has since followed an unconventional, slow, and winding route around those waters near the entrance to the Red Sea. Experts also noted a decrease in Houthi attacks during a period last month when Behshad was apparently out of work.
John Gahagan, president of Sedna Global, a company specializing in marine risks, said that the behavior of the “Behshad”, registered in Iran and carrying the Iranian flag, was “very unusual” and did not resemble the behavior of ordinary transport ships, wondering what its function was “if it was not supplying... The Houthis with intelligence information about ship movements in the region?
The report said that fears of “Behshad”’s involvement in providing targeting information to the Houthis have increased since this week’s attack on the ship “True Confidence,” which carries steel and trucks from China to Saudi Arabia , especially since “Behshad” was 80 nautical kilometers away when it was struck. “True Confidence.” This attack came after 6 other attacks in the Gulf of Aden or at the entrance to the Red Sea in just 15 days.
Experts also point to a calming pace of Houthi attacks in February following a cyberattack on Behshad. Data from ship tracking website Marine Traffic at the time shows the ship spent more than two weeks away from its normal sailing area. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps last month highlighted concerns about Iranian ships loitering off Yemen. He told the House of Commons : “The whole world needs to maintain pressure on Iran to cease and desist this behavior.”
"Behshad" was registered as an ordinary dry goods carrier, and outwardly it looks like any of the thousands of ships that roam the oceans. The newspaper's report indicated that a video clip posted on a Telegram channel linked to the Iranian army last month described the ship as a "floating weapons depot" and insisted that it had a role in combating piracy. The video, which did not address the contradiction between the Behshad's presentation as a commercial ship and its strategic role, included a warning against attacking it.
A voiceover accompanying an image in the video of both Behshad and a US aircraft carrier said: “Those who engage in terrorist attacks against Behshad or similar vessels endanger international sea routes and security and bear global responsibility for potential future international risks.” However, maritime security experts have long commented on the close link between Behshad and Houthi attacks. Years later, after the ship was almost stationary in the Red Sea, the ship sailed south on January 11 through the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Gulf of Aden, as information from Marine Traffic shows. John Gahagan commented on the links between Behshad's movements and the attacks as implausible coincidences, adding that if Iran is giving weapons to the Houthis, Behshad's suspected role in discovering the ships is not excluded.
However, the Financial Times says it is still unclear what action the US- led coalition wants to take to confront the Houthi threat to shipping against the controversial ship. The British Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a question about what it intends to do about this issue. Martin Kelly, senior Middle East analyst at EOS Risk Group, noted that Tehran would likely consider any attack on Behshad as crossing a "red line." For this reason, it was difficult to see how the threat could be immediately countered by the United States and its allies.
Maps
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All maps are lies. “Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it is essential,” wrote cartographer Mark Monmoneir in his book How to Lie with Maps. He showed that condensing complex, three-dimensional spaces onto a two-dimensional sheet of paper [in old days] is bound to be reductive. But it is impossible to comprehend the war in Gaza without reference to maps, otherwise the entire conflict is reduced to an endless series of meaningless acts of random violence and the suffering of civilians. The first characteristic of guerrilla warfare is the loss of a front line. Evidently, different mappers have different ideas of how to depict the war in Gaza, notably those that seek to depict Israeli progress in the ground campaign. Part of the problem is latency. The news that forms the basis of the maps takes time to filter out to mappers, and the cartographers take time in crafting their maps, and it takes time to curate them. These processes are uneven among mappers, so their maps may differ in detail. Probably there is some ideological bias, or at least thematic apperception, which is understandable in wartime. It may come as no surprise that al-Jazeera maps depict rather less Israeli territorial progress than other sources. Finally, there remains the epistemological question of just exactly what are the colored in areas depicting. Naively, this might be understood as areas of Israeli control, that are no longer contested by the HAMAS. Or possibly these are areas of Israeli presence, in many of which the possibility of an RPG-wielding HAMAS militant popping out of a tunnel unexpectedly remains a live possibility. With the "zero-range" combat characterized by small unit tactics on both sides, maps may be prey to a fallacy of misplaced concreteness.
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Bystanders
An estimated 8,000 patients need to be medically evacuated from Gaza, including over 6,000 trauma-related patients, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
British writer Tony Barber said - in an article in the British newspaper the Financial Times - that the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip for 5 months has continued to confuse European diplomacy, destabilize public opinion, and inflame local politics in every country. He pointed out that the bitter truth is that the European Union does not have much to do to determine the outcome of the conflict, which the longer Europe suffers from its repercussions. He stated that the political effects resulting from the war in Gaza extend beyond Europe, specifically to other democratic countries, especially the United States.
The writer added that President Joe Biden's comfortable victory in the Democratic Party primary elections in Michigan last month was accompanied by a warning that many Arab Americans and other voters had abandoned his support because of his full support for Israel. The repercussions of this war are no less dangerous in Europe, as they reflect a new political division that extends across at least three groups in the European Union countries, and reflects a widening gap between the positions of governments and public opinion. According to the article, the damage to European diplomacy in the Middle East and beyond takes multiple forms. Firstly, the war in Gaza dealt a blow to the attempts of European governments to attract the rest of the world to support Ukraine in its war of “self-defense” against Russia.
The writer believes that Europe's failure to take concrete steps to curb Israeli military operations in Gaza confirmed the accusation that the West is applying double standards, and is treating its efforts to support Ukraine as a struggle for the future of the international order based on rules and laws, while refraining from holding Israel accountable. Secondly, the war raises a question mark regarding the credibility of Europe's "soft power", which is often seen as an important tool for a continent that somewhat lacks military weight.
In this context, the writer cited an article by James Lynch of Amnesty International, written for the European Council on Foreign Relations, in which he asserted that Europe's soft power stems from its economic prosperity and the social values associated with it. The third type of damage to European diplomacy - in Barber's opinion - is the division of European governments among themselves, and this was evident in their votes on two UN General Assembly resolutions issued last October.
The first vote called for a truce - not a ceasefire - in Gaza, as 8 European Union countries supported it, 4 opposed it, and 15 others abstained from voting. In the second vote, which called for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, 17 countries supported the resolution, two objected, and 8 abstained from voting.
In answering the reasons why these European divisions are so deep, the writer believes that part of them is rooted in the history of each European Union member state from the period between 1918-1939 until the latter half of the twentieth century. The article cited, as an example, the conflicting positions of two European countries towards this conflict: Spain and the Czech Republic. The latter is an ardent supporter of Israel in the European Union, while the Spaniards are staunch supporters of the Palestinians.
In a poll conducted by YouGov in November, between 24 and 31% of respondents in 7 European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Britain) expressed sympathy for both sides of the Middle East conflict, and 27% said To 37% they do not know. Another indicator of this poll is that it revealed certain trends in public opinion in Western Europe. It became clear that young voters (up to the age of 29 years) are more sympathetic to the Palestinians, unlike older voters (especially those over the age of 45 years) who tend to support Israel.
Axis of Resistance
Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Faisal Al-Miqdad, confirmed that the most dangerous of the crimes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the support of the European Union and the United States for him. Al-Miqdad said through the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ account on the “X” platform: “Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation entity, Benjamin Netanyahu, destroyed the Gaza Strip , and killed more than twelve thousand Gazan children and more than eight thousand women, and the total number of victims he killed in cold blood is approaching.” To about thirty-one thousand martyrs, which is a described human extermination.”
He stressed that "the saying that European Union strategists repeat about building a rules-based world has evaporated. The murderer Netanyahu did not leave any rules without destroying them, international law, international humanitarian law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Charter, children's rights, women's rights, democracy, disarmament and peace."
He added: “More dangerous than the crimes of Netanyahu and his ruling gang is the support he received from many of the leaders of European Union countries and their parliaments, not to mention the blind support for him from Washington .” He continued: "Everyone knows that much of what the European Union leaders did before and after was a form of clowning, hypocrisy and lies, and their defense of Netanyahu's crimes led to pulling the rug from under all of their feet and revealed them as they really are, little puppets in the hands of Zionism and enemies of peoples' rights and aspirations."
Allied for Democracy
An Israeli rabbi called for the killing of women and children in Gaza, considering that this comes in response to the teachings of "Jewish law" (Halacha). The call was made by Rabbi Eliyahu Mali in a video clip that was widely circulated on social media on Thursday. The rabbi heads the Torah Yeshivah Shirat Moshe Institute in the city of Jaffa (central), where students serving in the Israeli army study.
Mali says in the video clip: “In our holy war, and in our case in Gaza, according to what Sharia law says, ‘You shall not spare every soul.’ The logic of this is very clear: If you do not kill them, they will kill you.” He claimed that those he described as "saboteurs" of today's war are "the children of the previous war whom we kept alive, and women are in fact the ones who make the terrorists," as he put it. He continued: "This means that this rule, 'Not every soul is revived,' is very clear in its concept. It is either you or them."
The rabbi continued: “Whoever comes to kill you, kill him first.” He continued by saying: “Whoever came to kill you with this concept does not only include the young man aged 16, 18, 20 or 30 who is pointing a weapon at you now, but also the future generation (the children of Gaza), as well as those who give birth to the future generation (the women of Gaza) because there is no Really different.” When asked if he was also talking about the elderly, he replied: “This is a heavy question, there is the Jewish heart,” without further clarification. It is worth noting that the danger lies in the fact that a number of Rabbi Eliyahu Mali’s students are serving in the army.
The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Merav Michaeli, denounced the rabbi’s statements, saying in a post on the “X” platform that “the use of Halacha (i.e. Jewish law) does not give any rabbi permission to present Judaism or Israel as thirsty for blood and revenge.” She added, referring to the rabbi’s statements: “This statement directly harms Israel’s security, and like other distorted statements in the name of Halacha, our enemy will use it to fight on the international stage.” She continued: “I call on the army and the Ministry of Defense to stop cooperating with the Shirat Moshe yeshiva in Jaffa until the rabbi is removed, and the Israeli army must not allow such dangerous moral corruption in its ranks.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that US President Joe Biden is wrong, in response to Biden's statements in which he said that Netanyahu is harming Israel more than it is beneficial. Netanyahu explained, “Biden is wrong that I am leading a policy against the majority of the Israeli public, and that it harms the country’s interests,” noting that the last thing Israel should do “is bring the Palestinian Authority into the Gaza Strip.”
Netanyahu also claimed - in an interview with the Kan channel, affiliated with the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation - that the Palestinian Authority is teaching its children about terrorism and financing terrorism, he said, adding that the Israelis support his position that “we must categorically reject the attempt to impose a Palestinian state on us.” According to his claim.
President Biden said - yesterday, Saturday - that there is no red line towards Israel, and that he will not withhold weapons from it and will never give it up, but he directed criticism at Netanyahu, indicating that he wants to reach a temporary ceasefire for a period of 6 weeks, starting with an exchange process. Great for prisoners. Biden added - in an interview with the American news network MSNBC - that Netanyahu cannot kill another 30,000 Palestinians as a result of the pursuit of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), pointing out that there are other ways to deal with the shock caused by the movement. , As he says.
The American President stated that he asked the Israelis "not to commit the mistakes that his country had made previously," and said, "The first time I visited Israel, I sat with the War Council and asked it not to repeat the mistakes that the United States had committed." For its part, the American Intelligence website said that the White House 's dissatisfaction and disappointment with the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasing. The website published an analytical article - entitled "Biden's Plan to Abandon Netanyahu" - in which it reviewed the growing dissatisfaction of the White House administration with Netanyahu, according to what was reported by Anadolu Agency.
The article devoted space to the statements of former Israeli ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich, who said that the White House had been dissatisfied with Netanyahu for a long time, “but I think now they (the Biden administration) are angrier and more intense.” He pointed out that Biden and Netanyahu did not agree on many issues, such as the situation in Gaza after the Israeli attacks and the issue of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to bring about peace.
This comes in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza since the seventh of last October, which has left tens of thousands of victims martyred, wounded and missing, most of them children and women, and massive destruction to residential buildings and vital facilities, amid famine looming over the besieged Strip with the scarcity of aid entering.
US Senator Bernie Sanders (R-Vermont) called on the White House to stop sending unconditional military aid to Israel, describing the war in Gaza as an “unprecedented crisis.” “It is not just that 30,000 people, two-thirds of whom are women and children, have already been killed,” Bernie Sanders said. “We are looking at the possibility that hundreds of thousands of children will starve to death.”
"The United States of America cannot be complicit in this mass slaughter of children," Sanders said Sunday during an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation." He added, "The administration cannot beg Netanyahu. You have to tell him if you want any money, you have to change your policy. Allow the trucks to enter to feed the children."
Sanders, who also still insists on the need to destroy Hamas, called on Biden to implement the Foreign Assistance Law, which stipulates that the United States will not send aid to any country that prevents or restricts the flow of American humanitarian aid, noting that “it has become clear that Israel is violating the law and that stopping aid "American humanity is a violation of the law."
"No more money for Netanyahu's war machine to kill Palestinian children," Sanders declared. Despite his increasing pressure on the administration, Sanders called on his supporters to support Biden in the presidential elections in November, where the president is likely to face a rematch against former President Donald Trump.
Emmanuel Todt is a French historian, anthropologist, sociologist, and political analyst. He is Jewish by faith and is prolific. He is considered one of the few remaining intellectuals of the old French school. Todd was known for his keen strategic sense, as he had predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union in his famous book, “The Final Fall,” which he published in 1976 when he was 25 years old, based on his theory of “family kinship patterns” and statistics on infant mortality rates in the Soviet Union.
After nearly a quarter of a century, Todd, who is accused of being hostile to the United States, published a book entitled “After Empire” (2001), in which he presented his arguments for the decline of America as a dominant global power, despite claims of its great victory with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The importance of Todd's proposals lies in his use of cultural factors in monitoring geopolitical data instead of the power struggle model that dominates strategic studies. In January 2024, Todd’s new book, “The Defeat of the West,” was published, which immediately sparked widespread controversy upon its publication. It is the summary of Todd’s reading of the new international order in light of the Ukraine war that has been ongoing for two years.
Todd focuses on the main reasons that led to the fall of the West, including:
- The end of the nation-state in the West.
- Industrialization has declined, which explains NATO's inability to produce necessary weapons for Ukraine.
- The Western religious matrix - i.e. Protestantism - reaches “zero degree” and bankruptcy, and the sharp increase in death rates in the United States is much higher than in Russia.
- Increasing numbers of suicides and murders, and the prevalence of imperial nihilism expressed by a chronic obsession with eternal wars.
Protestantism embraced the ethic of discipline, commitment to work, reduction of consumption, saving, and postponement of pleasure, or “urban piety,” in Weber’s words, to create capital and reinvest the return of production and its expansion, and this in turn has a close connection to the spirit of early capitalism, especially in the major European settlement societies. These societies migrated and settled in the colonies as a result of religious persecution and famines that struck Europe in the era of geographical discoveries and the mercantile (commercial) period.
But the chronic crisis of capitalism - especially the current American neoliberalism that has been spread globally - is that it is not based on consumer discipline, but rather on maximizing consumption and making borrowing available to individuals, companies and governments excessively, so consumption has become greater than income, and the consumer is spending what he has not yet earned, which has reduced savings. It led to drowning in seas of debt that far exceeded the gross domestic product.
Thus Protestantism, its morals, and its historical workings that led to the rise of the Anglo-American world evaporated. Todd attributes Western decline to the "evaporation" of Protestant values, and highlights the "values of work and social discipline" inherent in this branch of Christianity, which he sees as an essential element in the rise of the "Anglo-American world." He considered that "the evaporation of Protestantism in America, Britain, and the Protestant world has caused the disappearance of what constitutes the power and peculiarity of the West, and that the central variable is religious dynamics."
The gradual internal collapse of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture has led since the 1960s to “an empire deprived of a center, a project, and a meaning, that is, an essentially military entity run by a group without a culture (in the anthropological sense),” is how Todd defines the neoconservatives in America. Here is the core of Todd's argument, his post-Max Weber reinterpretation of the Protestant Ethic and its relationship to the spirit of capitalism. Weber's book "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" - which was published more than a century ago (1904-1905) - came at a time when "Protestantism was the matrix for the rise of the West." Protestantism, the death of Protestantism today is the cause of disintegration and defeat.”
Todd clearly identifies how the English “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the French Revolution of 1789 were the true pillars of the liberal West, and thus the expanded “West” is not historically “liberal,” since it also engineered “Italian fascism, German Nazism, and Japanese militaris.” Todd highlights how Protestantism imposed universal literacy on the populations it controlled “because all believers must have direct access to the Bible, an literate population is capable of economic and technological development, the Protestant religion has fortuitously forged a superior and efficient workforce,” and in this sense Germany was “ "At the heart of Western development" even if the Industrial Revolution occurred in England.
Todd found similarities between the country's cultural history and the history of the Protestant West, and said, "What Protestantism and Communism have in common is the obsession with education," adding, "Communism, which was founded in Eastern Europe, developed new middle classes," where the decisive factor in the rise of the West was the connection with Protestantism by the alphabet, according to Todd. Moreover, Todd asserts that Protestantism is twice at the heart of the West's history: through the educational and economic drive, with the fear of divine damnation, the quest for salvation, and the need to feel divinely chosen, generating a disciplined work ethic and a strong collective morality, and through the idea that human beings are not equal. (The White Man's Burden).
The collapse of Protestantism could only destroy the work ethic in favor of collective greed, i.e. (neo) neoliberalism. Todd's sharp critique of the spirit of the 1968 student revolution in France seems worthy of a whole new book, as he points out that “one of the great illusions of the 1960s, shared by the Anglo-American sexual revolution and the May 1968 student revolution in France, was the belief that the individual would be greater if he was freed from the group.”
This led to an inevitable disaster, according to Todd, who says, “Now that we have been collectively liberated from metaphysical beliefs, foundational and derivative, whether communist, socialist, or nationalist, we are experiencing an emptiness,” and he continues, “And thus we have become a large number of imitative dwarves who do not dare to think on their own.” "But they show that they are capable of fanaticism like the believers of antiquity."
Todd's brief analysis of the deeper meaning of transgenderism completely demolishes the campaigns for transgender freedom, from America to Europe, and will provoke serial outbursts of rage, as he sees transgenderism as “one of the banners of this particular nihilism of the West now, this drive to destroy not only things and people, But also reality.”
Here is an additional analytical benefit for Todd: “Transgender ideology says that a man may become a woman, and a woman may become a man, which is a false assertion, and in this sense close to the theoretical heart of Western nihilism,” and it gets worse when it comes to geopolitical ramifications.
In tandem with many analysts in Russia, China, Iran, and among independents in Europe, Todd seems certain that the United States’ obsession - since the 1990s - with cutting Germany off from Russia will lead to failure, and he says that “sooner or later they will cooperate, as “their economic specializations determine that they are complementary.” He says that defeat in Ukraine will open the way, as the "force of gravity" works to mutually seduce Germany and Russia.
Unlike almost any Western "analyst" around NATO countries, Todd believes that Moscow is on its way to winning over the entire NATO alliance, not just Ukraine, taking advantage of the window of opportunity that Putin identified in early 2022. Todd is betting on a time window of 5 years, meaning that the end of the game will be in 2027, he says, and it is useful to compare this with the estimate of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, as he stated last year, “The special military operation will end in 2025.”
Operation Iron Swords - By the Numbers
- 72,524 Gazans injured
- 40,000 Gazans killed, including buried under rubble
- 33,000 Gaza targets attacked
- 30,960 Gazans martyred
- 15,000 rocket launched from Gaza
- 14,492 Israelis were injured [i24 TV]
- 13,430 Gazan children martyred
- 13,000 HAMAS combatants killed [N12]
- 12,000 HAMAS combatants killed [IDF]
- 11,000 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank in 2023
- 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons
- 9,000 IDF psychological assistance
- 9,000 Gazan women martyred
- 8,000 Gazans missing
- 7,335 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank since Oct.7th
- 6,000 HAMAS combatants killed [HAMAS]
- 5,500 IDF wounded [reports]
- 4,665 West Bank Palestinians wounded
- 3,484 administrative detainees
- 3,400 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria
- 2,976 IDF wounded [IDF]
- 1,609 terrorists killed on the first day
- 1,500 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria affiliated with Hamas
- 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day
- 575 Israeli officers and soldiers killed
- 431 West Bank Palestinians martyred
- 246 Israeli officers and soldiers killed in Gaza
- 222 Hezbollah fighters killed in Lebanon
- 126 people recovered, including 91 Israelis, 11 bodies, and 24 foreign workers
- 116 living hostages in Palestinian custody
- 50 civilians killed in Lebanon
- 29 IDF deaths were caused by "friendly fire"
- 15 Israelis killed in the West Bank and Israel
Many of these numbers fluctate, up and down, with no apparent explanation. This list records the highest number reliably reported for each matter, under the theory that reality with catch up with reports, as is relentlessly the case.
The Palestinian resistance says that the losses of the Israeli forces are much greater than what is announced. Al Jazeera military and strategic expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi expressed his conviction that the numbers of dead and wounded announced by Israel “cannot represent the truth,” due to a discrepancy between the Israeli army’s data and the Walla website, which is close to the army itself.
In an interview with RT, Military strategist retired Tunisian Brigadier General Tawfiq Didi said that the number of Israeli army deaths in the Gaza battles is much greater than what Israel announces. Didi explained in an interview with the “Best Saying” program on RT channel, “The number of people killed in battles can be easily known, as the equation in wars is that for every 3 wounded there is a dead person, and the numbers now in Israel hover around 12,500 wounded and disabled people, and when we divide by Three, we find that the death toll exceeds 4,000, especially after eliminating more than a thousand tanks and armored vehicles, and I know what happens when Kornet missiles hit a tank. Its ammunition explodes and no one is left alive.”
He added, "The Israelis announce their dead only of those of Jewish origin and of the first race, meaning all Arabs, Falash, and those who are among them. They are not counted because they are of the second category. So I am sure that the number exceeds 4 thousand dead, and this is a very easy military calculation."
He pointed out, "The Palestinian resistance documented everything it did, unlike the Israelis. The resistance documented shooting at tanks and armored vehicles and destroying the houses in which the Israeli soldiers were holed up, and we saw them being killed... We saw the Kornet hitting the tanks, we saw Al-Yassin 105, so the difference is clear."
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed have been held as hostages in Gaza since 2014 and 2015, respectively. Unlike the roughly 240 people kidnapped in the Hamas October 7 terrorist attacks, the campaign for the release of Mengistu and al-Sayed has received little publicity. Mengistu is known to suffer from what HRW deemed "serious" mental health issues. "Avera crossed one of the safest borders in the world, under the eyes of the security services," recalled Gil Elias, a relative. "We're talking about a mentally ill person who got lost." The calls for the release of Mengistu and al-Sayed have been barely audible during the many years they have been held captive in Gaza.
Lord Roberts of Belgravia (Con) stated 08 February 2024 "My Lords, even if we were to take as accurate Hamas’s statistics and the 27,500 figure — there is no reason why we should; we do not do that with Putin or ISIS — if one subtracts the number of Gazans who have been killed by the quarter or so of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas rockets that fall short, one is left with a less than 2:1 ratio of civilians to Hamas terrorists killed, of whom there have been more than 9,000 so far. War is hell, and every individual civilian death is a tragedy, but — I speak as a military historian — less than 2:1 is an astonishingly low ratio for modern urban warfare where the terrorists routinely use civilians as human shields. It is a testament to the professionalism, ethics and values of the Israel Defense Forces."
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